CASPER — A former foster daughter of Steven Marler described how he sexually assaulted her in the family’s master bedroom, and one of his adopted sons described hearing “moaning” from the girls’ bedroom.
Both testified in the fourth day of Marler’s trial in Natrona County District Court. He’s a former national award-winning foster parent now facing 26 criminal charges, including sexually abusing multiple young girls in his care, along with battery and child endangerment.
Along with the allegations of sexual abuse, the adopted son also told the jury about being kicked off a metal roof of the family’s Casper Mountain home by his father for “moving too slow” after clearing snow.
The foster daughter told Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Brandon Rosty that she was in the home with her older sisters between the spring of 2013 and 2014. She described the day when Marler brought her into his bedroom and placed her on the bed.
She testified that he asked her to take off her clothes, and she refused.
“Once I would not, Steve removed my pants,” she said.
Marler also removed her underclothes and then sexually assaulted her with his fingers before removing his own clothing and sexually assaulted her again, she said.
“I was laying on my back on the bed and he was standing up,” the girl said, adding that the incident left her in a lot of pain.
The girl said she never talked about the incident until bringing it up with her own biological mother after she was returned to her. She told Rosty that she did not bring up the alleged assault in a forensic interview in February 2016 that followed an alleged assault of her older sister.
“I didn’t know how to talk about it,” she said. Being a young girl, her thoughts were that, “I didn’t want people to be in trouble.”
The Ski Pole
The girl also testified about the Marler home environment, including an incident with a ski pole. All the children were sent outside to run in the snow and cold after Steven Marler found a ski pole in the yard that was not put away.
No one would admit to leaving it out, so everyone was punished. She said she was wearing pajamas and no shoes.
In earlier testimony Monday, adopted sons of the Marlers testified that the girls were clearly Marler’s “favorites,” and they saw him go into the girls’ bedroom. There also were times that the girls, two in particular, were taken the masterbedroom when Steven Marler’s wife, Kristen, was away from the home during evening hours or on visits to Las Vegas.
An adopted son who has since changed his name testified that one girl would get treats the next day after spending time with Marler and that there were times he could hear “moaning, crying, talking” coming from the girls’ room when Marler was inside with them.
He also told the court he was young when he was placed in the home and adopted a couple of years later.
As with other adopted children, he testified that the adopted boys and girls while initially in bedrooms, spent their last two years in the home in a school room area sleeping on two mattresses on the floor, one for boys and one for girls.
District Attorney Dan Itzen asked the teen why they were on the mattresses.
“There were a lot of reasons, mainly because we were stealing food,” he said.
“How come?” Itzen asked.
“We were hungry,” he said.
He testified that their meals were casseroles or sometimes just boiled potatoes, or a tortilla with peanut butter on it.
“That was pretty much it,” he said.
Another brother testified about the Marlers buying sacks of potatoes and being given a potato for breakfast, one with meat for lunch and another for supper.
Punishment
The adopted son went on to explain that they had 15 minutes to eat or they would be punished either by spankings or “circuits,” which involved doing 100 pushups, sit-ups, mountain climbers and jumping jacks.
Spankings could be with a piece of firewood, piece of rubber mud flap or a belt, he said.
He described doing chores that included cleaning the house, getting firewood and shoveling snow in the winter from the sidewalks and roofs of the home and garage. He said a tractor with a bucket would be put up against the metal roof and certain children and Marler would climb on the roof to clear the snow.
Under questioning from Itzen, the boy described an incident shoveling snow on the roof between 2019 and 2021. He said Marler was on the roof to break the ice and he was shoveling snow. They had finished and he was moving slowly to get off the roof.
He said Marler told him: “Move faster, you’re going too f***ing slow.” When the boysaid he was worried about slipping, Marler kicked him in the back.
“I slid down the roof and there was jagged metal on the roof and sliced my left leg,” he said, adding he still has a scar and that Marler gave him some antiseptic and gauze for the wound.
Another adopted son who’s now an adult took the stand and confirmed the incident, stating he was “right behind him” and saw Marler kick him off the roof.
Casper pediatrician Dr. Sarah Grooms testified that during a 2023 “well-adolescent visit,” she saw the scar and was asked by the Wyoming Department of Family Services to get an explanation of it from the young man. She read from her medical notes in the courtroom.
“He maintained he was shoveling the roof, he (Marler) kicked me and I fell off the roof,” Dr. Grooms said.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney John Hummel, the pediatrician was asked if she “fact-checked” her patient’s claim.
“I generally believe my patients are telling the truth,” she said.
The doctor then told Itzen under re-direct questioning that the scar was consistent with what she was told by the teen.
Silent Children
Hummel pointed out that when the adopted son was interviewed by the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigator in 2021, he didn’t tell her he fell off the roof and also never said anything to law enforcement when they were at the house as an initial investigation of sexual abuse.
“You never told any of the officers about being injured on the roof, did you?”
“No,” he said.
When the Marlers were visited by the authorities, he said the Marlers would instruct them what to say, and after the interviews they would have to write down for the Marlers what they said. He testified he did write down what he said after the law enforcement visit.
He also told the jury about being spanked with a piece of rubber that was about 2 inches thick, 4 inches wide and 6 inches long. He said that the spankings would leave bruising and sometimes he would bleed.
On the stand Monday, Hummel asked him if he told an investigator that all the kids bled from the spankings. He replied that he “wasn’t looking at their bottoms” and when shown a transcript from an interview agreed that he must have made that statement.
Hummel also challenged him on a statement made to an investigator that his adopted brother was hit 130 times during a spanking. He answered that he did not see the spanking, but the children counted how many times they heard the strap come down.
“You say Steve spanked (the brother) 130 times?” Hummel asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
Another of Marler’s adopted sons testified during the afternoon about an incident involving one of the adopted girls.
He said the boys were shoveling off a roof with Marler when the girl poked her head out of their bedroom window and said something. He said Marler got mad, got off the roof and went into the home, grabbed the girl and brought her into the mud room.
There Marler punched her in the nose.
“I’m pretty sure he broke it,” he testified.
Earlier in the morning, another child living in the home testified about stealing food, the chores the adopted children did and the adopted children being called “the gang of eight” by Steven and Kristen Marler.
He also testified that there were times that Steven Marler would yell out to a particular adopted daughter for a back massage.
“You would hear the pitter-patter of little feet,” he said.
He agreed with Hummel that after being sent to a behavioral institute, children’s home and then a youth center for several months in 2021 and 2022 he never reported any abuse by Steve and Kristen Marler.
Defense attorney Devon Peterson during opening arguments last week told the 16-member jury panel (12 jurors and four alternates) that discipline in the Marler home had broken down during the pandemic and that the adopted children wanted to leave.
He said the sexual abuse allegations were the result of that desire.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
